Stay on top of the latest dog care research and trends for knowledge that will help to keep your dog healthy and happy. Each month's edition of OPD's Dog Care Monthly will include:

Dog Care News You Can Use - including research, trends, real-life stories, veterinarian advice and any information that we know you'll want to hear to help you take better care of your dog.

Organic Pet Digest Web Site Updates - important additions and updates that shouldn't be missed. We sift through all of our advice and tools and bring to your attention to the best of the best of what's new.

If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and us a big favor and "pay it forward."

If a friend DID forward this to you and if you like what you read, please subscribe by clicking here.

Dog Care News You Can Use:

• How Does Your Vet Stack Up?

• Online Vet Advice?

How Does Your Vet Stack Up?

It’s easy to stay with what you know, but when is the last time you thought about whether your vet was providing your dog with the most comprehensive and effective care available?

The first and most important step in that direction is to consider the benefits of a veterinarian who has been both conventionally AND holistically trained.

And did you know…

All holistic vets are also conventionally trained and licensed. This gives them many more tools to ensure that your dog is being treated as effectively as possible.

The main problem with conventional-only vets is that they often only focus on curing SYMPTOMS rather than treating the underlying issue.

For example, a friend’s dog, Mika, had a recurring skin rash. Every time the problem arose, their vet would spend 5 to 10 minutes inspecting Mika’s skin and conducting a quick physical. Then she would prescribe a topical skin cream, a pill or both.

Most of the time, the rash would go away. But weeks or months later it always returned.

We suggested they start seeing a holistic veterinarian. We explained that while they are more expensive, holistic vets have been extensively trained and can attack problems from more angles. They also spend additional time with each patient to thoroughly understand the issue and what could be causing it.

Our friends took our advice and were pleasantly surprised.

Instead of the 5 to 10 minutes they were used to, their holistic vet spent an entire hour with them. In addition to conducting a thorough physical, she asked many questions and took notes about Mika’s history, diet and lifestyle. Then, while massaging Mika to improve her blood flow, she gave valuable advice…

There are many causes of a dog skin rash, and some work would need to be done to determine what was causing Mika’s.

First, the vet wanted to find out if Mika had fleas. Some dogs have Flea Allergy Dermatitis which can lead to a rash and cause the dog to bite and chew their skin.

After ruling out fleas, they needed to find out if something in Mika’s diet was the cause. Mika was to start a “novel protein and carbohydrate” diet immediately. If the rash did not come back in 12 weeks, they would know that something in the old food was the cause.

The vet explained that if a food allergy wasn’t the culprit, they would need to explore other possibilities and potentially conduct tests to determine whether atopy (environmental allergies), previous vaccinations or chemicals around the house or yard were the cause. Regardless of whether vaccinations and household chemicals were causing the problem, the vet spent another 10 minutes discussing her philosophy and recommendations about each. The adjustments would allow Mika’s immune system to be strengthened.

As it turned out, Mika DID have a dog food allergy – after completing the recommended elimination diet they found that she was allergic to corn.

Their trip to the holistic vet not only solved Mika’s skin rash problem, but even though the first visit was more expensive it saved a lot of money versus a lifetime of vet visits and prescription medications.

Long story short, if you haven't done so already it's time to evaluate a holistic veterinarian for your dog...

See our Dog Vet Care page to learn more about the differences between holistic and conventional veterinarians and to find a holistic vet in your area.

Online Vet Advice?

Even though a holistic vet’s time is well worth it, it's still another expense that can be tough to swallow. What if you could receive advice from an experienced holistic vet online?

We conducted a thorough search of the internet, and neither paid nor free online vet advice from a holistic veterinarian seems to exist.

Almost every day, at least one question comes in requesting specific advice, so we got to thinking...

Maybe we should hire a holistic vet to answer your questions!

Before we jump into this project head first, we wanted to make sure that it would be worth while.

Please click here let us know your opinion in a brief 3-question survey...